A from the Officers of Local 3: Don Doser, Business Manager , .- * ~ ~-- hr'< President, Jerry Bennett Pat O'COnnell, Vice President 14'll~lild. Andlli/ Rec.-Corres. Secretary, Rob Wise Darell Steele, Financial Secretary ~ Treasurer, Max Spurgeon 2 December 1996/Engineers News TIIS MONTH in the ENGINEERS NEWS ~l!.1 1 ·LILLL[ ----1 ' i Wist~ 8 Killing two problems with 1, one solution 4 i ---71 , n... ., -dit Kiewit Pacific constructs the largest by Don Doser, Business Manager - section of a 29-mile pipeline in Lake County ~ t's not a bad idea this time of year to remember why unions exist and why nearly 35,000 working people have chosen to be members of Local 3. ~~ Our members for the most part have benefited from a =* Think your vote didn't count? and a lot of hours worked. Yet, all strong economy this year lirfil"filtity Several November election races around us as we shop for the holidays, we see the ever pre- proved the answer to this question is sent signs of the far less fortunate. There are those who have no job, no home and apparently a definite 'yes' no family to help them out oftheir hardship. There are Ilimilett,Tr'jibilffille;421 . 4. 7., *n--7 4/H.--- Salvation Army volunteers seemingly at every store entrance. Some ring bells, a few play a trumpet, encouraging us to give to the less fortunate as we spend our shopping dollars. Then there are those who have jobs, but because they have -14-2 -, *,----,.-., 2 1 *6 Saving the salmon no union to represent them, they aren't getting paid very 5 . : 1 1,41'Jrl,1.. - 1 m Fletcher General constructs a colossal much. They work just as hard as we do, but they take home a lot less. , 0 ,1:t ' 1 -4 structure on the face of Shasta Dam There's also the other side of the coin. The wealthy who to prevent decline of chinook salmon have done very well this past two years with the help of a .1 ·. i . ril #j li"Rdi] L Congress that has been very friendly to them. Because of 'L./: 1-V 1,1 ;ti'SC ; ul their power and influence, they seem to have no problem get- , ting the politicians to cut deals that reap big financial rewards. Urion News ..... 3 Addiction Recovery Program 16 Take Wilhelmina du Pont Ross (of the fabulously wealthy Orlanizing News . News . 16 du Pont family). She hired her husband to run their horse 9 Safety stables and wrote offhis salary on their joint tax return. Pension Letters . 9 District News . .17-21 Her relative, William du Pont, Jr., whose Maryland estate includes a grandstand that can seat 12,500 people, deducted Fringe Benefits . 10 Meetings & Announcements . 22 on his taxes the cost of hiring professional fox hunters. COMET Schedule'97. ..10 SwapShop 23 We call this support system for the rich "corporate wel- fare." It takes many different forms, but the result is always Teaching Techs .14 Scholarship Rules . 24 the same. They take from the poor and middle income earners Te:h Engineers .14 Pre-Retiree Meetings ,24 and they give to the rich. Between 1971 and 1991, for example, families earning a Cr*lit Union . ..15 median annual income found their combined income and Social Security taxes rose by 329 percent. For those making • more than $1 million a year, their combined tax bill fell by 34 =ITS percent. That's why unions exist. They are the modern day Robin *I ENGINEERSNEWS Hood. No, they don't steal much from the rich - although the rich would like everyone to believe they do - but they work deoR_(gE"11*,4, ,-.1./0..../ very hard to keep the rich from stealing from plain, hard tillu /ba working folks like you and me. 31!IZI, 0-*91 Mill This week I heard about the Kingston corporation, a com- WESTERI ASM &'RESSASSOCIAH» puter chip maker in Southern California that earned a huge ,=M=!57 profit this year. The company's owners felt the workers SEMI-ANNUAL deserved a share of the profits, because they, after all, had Don Doser Business Manager played a big part in making money for the company. All the Jerry Bennett President ~ employees received huge Christmas bonuses, some equal to Pat O'Connell Vice President MEETING three times their annual salaries. Rob Wise Recording-Corresponding Secretary I say«Hoorah" for Kingston. If every employer was that Recording-Corres)onding Darell Steele Financial Secretary forward thinking, union representatives would have to look Max Spurgeon Treasurer for another line ofwork. But Secretary Robert _. Wise the reality is, most companies • Engineers News Staff • aren't like Kingston. has announced thar the next Managing Editor James Earp That's why workers join unions like Local 3. Working peo- Semi-Annual meet ng of the Assistant Editor Steve Moler ple, even well trained skilled ones like our members, need representation. They need someone in their court to negotiate membership will oe held: Graphic Artist Ed Canalin good contracts and to go to bat for them when they are treat- Saturday, January 4, 1997 Engineers News (ISSN 176-560)is published monthly by Local 3 ed unfairly on the job. They need an advocate in the political at 1:00 p.m. of the International Union of Operating Egineers, AFL-CIO; 1620 arena who will keep politicians honest and fight against those Seafarers International South Loop Rd., Alameda, CA 94502. Periodical postage paid at who are not. Alameda, CA and additional mailing offices. Engineem News is Union Auditorium So, every time I pass by one of the Salvation Army workers sent without charge to al members of Operating Engineers Local 3 350 Fremont St., San Francisco, Calif. in good standing. Non-member subscription price is $6 per year. this time of year and reach into my pocket, I remember where POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Engineers News, 1620 that money came from, and I am grateful once again for the South Loop Rd., Alameda, CA 94502. union that has made it all possible. I wish you and your fami- ,rGiEEZE~Zb» lies a joyful Christmas. (} P,inted on Recycled Paper 583 , December 1996/Engineers News 3 ~i~#10118 77-i - Dredging r 4 loses one of i r its finest Dutra Dredging Company founde,; Edward Dutra, .6 -~= - -* passes away Edward Dutra, ''9~41*,I~ , Possible founder of Dutra Dredging Company - 4,4 and the Dutra 0,....0,0*KIB -/41' .4 compromise Museum of Edward Dredging, Dtara 16-'. 4' .,~ ""4. I reached on passed away 74'1,01 'k future September 11. Dutra -/'.i"- W***' ' was involved in the -4 * of S.E's Central dredging industry for over 60 years. He began his dredging career as a Freeway teenager working on his father's dredges in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco I n last month's article about the demolition and seismic retrofit of San Bay Dutra earned the title of Boat Captain in Francisco's quake-damaged Central Freeway viaduct, city and state officials 1940. were still evaluating the roadway's future. The city and Caltrans were look- During World War II, he dredged for the US. ing into the feasibility of either making long-term repairs to the existing free- Army Corps of Englneers in the South Pacific, way or building an entirely new structure. Hawaii and Guam. In 1945, he resumed the title of It appears all the parties involved in determining the Central Freeway's Boat Captain for the Clamshell Dredge Mallard. future -- the City of San Francisco, Caltrans and neighborhood groups -- are From 1952-55, he became dredge and levee super- moving toward a compromise solution. At a November 20 public hearing, the intendent for Leslie Salt in Newark, Calif. parties, which had teen embroiled in a 10-year freeway war, finally seem to be moving toward common ground. In 1953, Dutra formed his own company, Dutra All sides are rallying ar„und a $100 million proposal developed by the Board Dredging Company. Over the years he designed of Supervisors Central Freeway Task Force that calls for no freeway north of and built several dredges and barges, including the Market Street. Instead there would be new South of Market Street ramps first all-steel, welded sidedraft clamshell dredge, added to help disperse traffic. A northbound Van Ness Avenue ramp would be the Alameda, built in 1955, followed by the dredge built, along with a Duboce Avenue offramp at Mission Street for westbound Sacramento in 1956. In 1965, Dutra designed and traffic. built the dredge Liberty, which was recently recon- The Central Freeway would come down to street level at Market, where figured and updated as the Liberty Unloade,; which there would be a stoplight and end of the freeway. North of Market on Octavia was rechristened in 1995. Street would become two lanes of traffic in each direction heading up to the Edward Dutra also founded the Dutra Museum Oak-Fell street corridor, and there would be no overpass on Market. ofDredging in Rio Vista, Calif., and co-authored The westbound Fell Street offramp originally was supposed to reopen after the book, "The 7'We Breakers", along with Delta Penhall Co. finished demolishing the upper deck this month. Under the latest historian, Dr. John Thompson. He was also an proposai, the Fell Street ramp would be demolished in the next year or so. active member of the World Dredging Association The compromise was made possible in part because major traffic problems for over 20 years. Dutra's life was filled with out- caused by the closure of the Central Freeway north of Mission Street for con- standing achievements and numerous contribu- thus reducing the need to build a full- struction work have not materialized, tions to the dredging world.